There are many forms of breathing in Chi Gung. The three main styles are natural breathing, Buddhist Breathing, and Taoist Reverse Breathing. "Taoist Reverse Breathing...because this style of breathing uses deliberate muscular contraction of the stomach muscles, it is more powerful than the other two types of breathing...is used primarily for moving chi strongly through the body for healing and energy transference",stated in L.V. Carnie's "Chi Gung"
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Originally posted by Tim_with_a_T:
The breathing method Chunyi Lin explains in the Spring Forest Qigong course seems to go against almost all of the literature I have seen on proper deep breathing. Even LS, in their paraliminals and books(I hope I'm not mistaken) suggest taking deep even breathes, expanding your abdominal with inhaling and pulling the stomach in with exhaling. I have seen this many places, from yoga to acting, but Chunyi Lin is telling me to pull my abominal in with each breathe, and push out with each exhale. Having a bit of acting experience, and curious as to why he was suggesting this method of breathing, I decided to watch and see how he was breathing and speaking on the video. I was not impressed. His shoulders were popping up and down with each breathe, and you could easily hear his effort to inhale. When you breathe with the diaphragm, this does not happen. You can breathe so much deeper, not with your chest, as you do when you pull your stomach in with each inhale, but using your diaphragm to pull air down to the very bottom of your lungs. Also, when breathing in the style of Mr. Lin, you put stress on the vocal cords, and distort your voice. How can he be proposing this form of breathing, when pretty much every other book, tape, and acting teacher, has told me the opposite?
